


To the ends of the shadow line

by eledae



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alien Abduction, Drabble Collection, Gen, Horror, Implied/Referenced Suicide, TikTok, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:34:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26737465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eledae/pseuds/eledae
Summary: A place for me to post (super-short) horror drabbles while I'm working on longer stories. Rated M for violence, dark themes and swearing. I haven’t tagged MCD but will do so if relevant in individual chapter summaries; please check summaries for specifics! Just reserving the rights to get a little ruthless. Nobody's safe, just saying.
Kudos: 3





	1. look away

**Author's Note:**

> These drabbles started life as a challenge with the spookily brilliant [undelivered truth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/undeliveredtruth/) and [yoongoogles](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/yoongoogles) to write to a 250 word limit, so they're super short! Apologies if that makes them a little too snack-sized to be satisfying reads, but the discipline of sticking to the word limit is an interesting challenge as a writer, and it’s so nice to be able to finish something in hours rather than months! 
> 
> Apologies in advance too though if the chapters start expanding like pufferfish if something takes off on me a little...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (MCD, referenced suicide, zombies, Mingi & Seonghwa, Hongjoong, Yeosang)

Mingi’s out of food; he’s eaten all the chocolate San had stashed under his mattress. Water’s going to be the bigger problem, it’s so hot. He and Seonghwa have already stripped down to underwear. There’s nobody to impress now, right? Hongjoong’s still going to rip them apart if they go out there, no matter what they’re wearing.

They can hear him in the lounge, crashing into furniture, growling. Every so often he tries their door. The rocking back and forth of the handle is horrible and hypnotic and Mingi always holds his breath, waiting for the lock to give out.

Of the car that came back first, they’re the only two left. No idea what happened to the second car. Mingi’s phone died hours ago, about the same time that Yeosang opened the window and jumped. Said he couldn’t bear to  _ change _ like that. 

Neither of them talk about the strip of cloth his hyung’s got tied around one arm, where Hongjoong bit him too. While Seonghwa was sleeping, Mingi cuffed him to the bed with prop handcuffs (also under San’s mattress). 

He’s awake now.

Mingi lies next to him, wondering what the first sign will be. In movies, it’s usually their eyes. He stares into Seonghwa’s beautiful, impossibly calm eyes… that elegant hand stroking his hair, the painful smile he gives like a gift.

“Look away,” whispers his hyung.

But Mingi can’t. 

Even later, when the colour bleeds out of Seonghwa’s eyes. And he starts to feed.

  
  



	2. in the same darkness as me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (alien abduction, Hongjoong, San)

He’s such a fucking idiot. First day in the biolab, trying to make an impression, and he’s already screwed up. Left behind all of the files on the lab’s rare interstellar specimens he’d planned to take home and read up on overnight. Yeah, you’re making an impression, Hong. How the fuck did you ace the interview, must have paid someone to get in here… that’s the impression.

They’re under strict instructions not to be there after-hours, but his pass still works. He flips on the fluorescents, and freezes. His brain struggles to make sense of what he’s seeing. 

There’s someone in the lab, staring into the largest of the specimen cases. As the lights ping on, what looks like a dark, bulky coat unfurls into massive claw-tipped wings. He’s across the room so swiftly that Hongjoong doesn’t even register the movement.

His face, at least, looks human; he’s beautiful, all angular planes and full lips. There’s a feathering of white in the black hair falling across his eyes. Oh god, his _eyes_. They’re the wild, molten gold of a bird of prey. There’s no pity there, just an intent curiosity. 

Before he realizes it, Hongjoong is pinned up against the glass of the case. A gloved hand comes up to stroke his cheek; a thumb along his jaw tilts his head up. 

Hongjoong finds he can’t move, can barely breathe. What _are_ you? Where are you _from_?

The stranger’s voice in his ear, all low promise. “I’ll take you there.”

  
  



	3. bring a friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (TikTok, Wooyoung)

The first thing Wooyoung does every morning is grope along the charge cable for his phone and crack open one eye just wide enough to check notifications.

He scrolls through all the comments under his new Dynamite cover, yeah, yeah, I’m great, I know. Stops when he sees he’s been tagged in a duet. Huh. Always someone trying to steal some glory. The name’s nobody he knows, either, @EyesOnTheBa11.

When he plays the duet, both eyes open up. Wide. At first he can’t make out much in the grainy gray darkness. Looks like they’re filming at night with infrared, idiot, you can barely make out their moves. He doesn’t recognize the dancer at all under a heavy hoodie and baggy sweatpants. Their face is just a shifting pixelated blur, eyes catching the infrared with a white shine.

But the place they’re filming… it starts to look weirdly familiar. He glances around him, frowning. It’s his dorm room. That’s his _room_.

The dancer picks up their phone, swoops towards the bed and all of a sudden he’s looking at his own sleeping face, as the cheerful beat of Dynamite rocks along.

_bring a friend, join the crowd, whoever wanna come along_

The sound of a notification scares him shitless and he opens the next duet, by reflex. The new clip shows glimpses of his own startled face appearing between darker vertical strips.

He’s just figured out what they must be, when the slatted wooden door of his wardrobe begins to drift open.


End file.
